Did you get them out of the river Johnny? A guy once told me that if you get them out of some funky water you should keep them alive in a bucket of fresh for a couple days changeing the water once in a while and feed them corn meal so it purges all the nasty riverbottom dog poop out of them.

I just use plain water in an ice chest. After about 10 to 15 minutes in the water I drain and fill again. I do this a couple of times until the water is clear. Using the ice chest makes viewing the water color easier.

Well......back to cooking them. We make an annual camping/fishing trip up to Timothy Lake on Mt Hood every year and I set out the crawfish pots for the first two nights. I keep the crawfish in a live trap suspended away from the bottom of the lake for a while so they will purge themselves. On our last night in camp we BBQ steaks on my Weber and I cook the crawfish to go along with the steak. I put them in a kettle with some water and some Old Bay seasoning and some salt. Dip the tails and the larger claws in butter and wash down with ice cold beer or the wine of your choice.Another good recipe is to boil them in salted water with a healthy dose of cayenne pepper dumped in. Dungeness crab is also really good fixed either of these ways. One thing about keeping them in fresh water to purge them. Ordinary tap water will kill them in a hurry. I believe it's the chlorine in the water that does it. When you buy crawfish at the market they just stack them in boxes and keep them cool. I think you'd be better off to catch them in clean water and not worry. Crawfish is poor man's lobster. If there's any difference in the taste I can't tell it.

I like to make Etouffe when we have some tails left over. It's a bit time consuming but worth the effort. I did quick searchfor recipes this page is one of the first that came up. Good Luck....http://www.gumbopage...d/etouffee.html

they all died over night I was changing the water in the 5 gallon bucket everyday today would have been the second day I had 12 in it . I didn't know about the corn meal i will try it just need to find a way to keep them alive long enough. They are coming out of the canal and kind of smell like pond water I might just pass on the canal crawdads and use them for bait .

Years ago when the levee broke over by Isleton we went along Hwy 12 with hot dog tongs and 5 gallon buckets and got a whole bunch of them. Cut the tails off and pulled the core or vein out of the tails and boiled them and dipped them in butter. At the time we didn't know any other way of doing it but boy were they good.

I like to make Etouffe when we have some tails left over. It's a bit time consuming but worth the effort. I did quick searchfor recipes this page is one of the first that came up. Good Luck....http://www.gumbopage...d/etouffee.html

(after they're clean)water, salt and old bay or a good crab boil seasoning and your good to go. eat the tail and suck the juices and all that delicious nasty looking stuff thats up in the head. with some ice cold beer, theres nothing better.

My suggestion is to actually throw them in a bucket of water with 2 spoons of salt. Salt helps them spit out all the dirt because of osmosis. Usually overnight is good enough. Chinese people (my people lol)use sesame oil instead of salt. I found that not as good, a lot of them died lol. One of the best recipes is the one at boiling crab. The restaurant makes bomb crawfish. Louisianan style, but really really good.

We get crawfish at Donner Lake all summer long. I like to boil them up with old bay and dip them in garlic butter. You can also make a stir-fry using frozen vegetables and a stir fry sauce. Cook the vegies and add the boiled crawfish tails (pealed) at the last minute. Cook just long enough to heat them through and then serve. Yum!!!